Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do)

Walk out of the Hijiri-bashi exit at Ochanomizu and the green dome is right there, squeezed between office blocks and university buildings. Nikolai-do is named after Nikolai Kasatkin, the Russian missionary later canonized as St. Nicholas of Japan, who first came to Hakodate before building this cathedral. Construction began in 1884 to a design by the Russian architect Mikhail Shchurupov, with Josiah Conder drawing up the working plans, and it was consecrated on March 8, 1891. The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake toppled the bell tower onto the dome and fire gutted the interior. Okada Shin'ichiro led the rebuilding, which finished in 1929 with a changed dome and roofline, though most of the original walls survive. It became an Important Cultural Property in 1962. Time your visit with care: the interior opens only in the afternoon, from 13:00, closing at 16:00 from April to September and 15:30 the rest of the year, and it is shut on Mondays.